"One result of re-examining human society from a gender-holistic perspective has been a new theory of cultural evolution. This theory, which I have called Cultural Transformation theory, proposes that underlying the great surface diversity of human culture are two basic models of society.

The first, which I call the dominator  model, is what is popularly termed either patriarchy or matriarchy - the ranking  of one half of humanity over the other. The second, in which social relations are primarily based on the principle of  linking rather than ranking, may best be described as the partnership model. In this model - beginning with the most fundamental difference in our species, between male and female - diversity is not equated with either inferiority or superiority."

Riane Eisler in the "The Chalice & the Blade"

http://www.rianeeisler.com/chalice.htm